Popular Support of President José Manuel Zelaya Continues in Honduras
 

HAVANA, Cuba, July 1, (acn).- Actions in support of Honduran constitutional president José Manuel Zelaya continue in that Central American nation, where thousands of people staged a demonstration in the vicinity of the Presidential House in Tegucigalpa.

The demonstration took place in the same place where hundreds of police officers, with assault rifles and the use of water cannons, repressed the population expressing its rejection of the military coup, Prensa Latina news agency reports.

The president of the Unitary Federation of Workers and leader of the Popular Peaceful Resistance Front, Juan Barahona, ratified the Honduran people’s will to continue the struggle until the restoration of the institutional status in that nation takes place.

Barahona and independent presidential candidate Carlos H. Reina said that the people will give a warm welcome to Zelaya when he returns to Honduras.

In addition, they condemned the excessive use of force on the part of the armed forces against the thousands of Honduran citizens demanding the return of Zelaya in front of the Presidential House since the first news on the coup were known last Sunday.

On the other hand, trade union leader Porfirio Ponce denounced the reappearance of the Death Squad 316 in Honduras.

In this regard, he said that members of that command harass popular leaders, like Marcos Antonio Murillo, a trade union leader from the National University of Honduras, whose house was raid in one of the actions of that squad.

This criminal command was created by the Army in the 1980’s to assassinate popular leaders and make them disappear.

In Washington, a military source announced on Wednesday that the US Defense Department suspended its military activities with Honduras, due to the coup d’etat against President Zelaya.

In a news conference, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said that the measure will be in force for an indefinite period, Prensa Latina news agency reports.

On Monday, US President Barack Obama affirmed that the coup in the Central American nation constitutes an illegal act and that Zelaya continues to be the head of state of that country.

In this regard, after a meeting at the White House, the Democrat head of state assured that “it would be a serious precedent if we begin to return to the times of military coups.”

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded the restoration of democratic and constitutional order in Honduras, concludes Prensa Latina.